Research and Special Programs Administration January 21, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

RSPA is extending until March 18, 2005, the period for interested persons to submit comments on the November 10, 2004 notice of proposed rulemaking in response to a request by the Air Transport Association of America, Inc. (ATA). In the November 10, 2004 NPRM, we proposed to amend the requirements in the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) for the transportation of hazardous materials by aircraft. The proposed changes include clarifying the applicability of part 175; excepting cargo aircraft from the quantity limits in Sec. 175.75; reformatting the exceptions in Sec. 175.10 into three sections based on applicability; and providing new separation distances for the shipment of radioactive materials by cargo aircraft. These changes are being proposed in order to clarify requirements to promote safer transportation practices; promote compliance and enforcement; eliminate unnecessary regulatory requirements; convert certain exemptions into regulations of general applicability; finalize outstanding petitions for rulemaking; facilitate international commerce; and make these requirements easier to understand.

This document provides guidance to operators of gas transmission pipelines regarding semi-annual reporting of performance measures for integrity management. Operators of gas transmission pipelines subject to Subpart O, ``Pipeline Integrity Management,'' must submit four overall measures of their integrity management performance on a semi-annual basis. The first report was due August 31, 2004, and was the subject of RSPA/OPS Advisory Bulletin ADB-04-02 (69 FR 43881) which published on July 22, 2004. This document provides additional guidance for operators regarding on-line reporting that will be available for the report due in February 2005 and subsequent reports.

In accordance with the procedures governing the application for, and the processing of, exemptions from the Department of Transportation's Hazardous Material Regulations (49 CFR Part 107, Subpart B), notice is hereby given that the office of hazardous Materials Safety has received the application described herein. Each mode of transportation for which a particular exemption is requested is indicated by a number in the ``Nature of Application'' portion of the table below as follows: 1Motor vehicle, 2Rail freight, 3Cargo vessel, 4Cargo aircraft only, 5Passenger-carrying aircraft.